Love and War
by Clueless Bystander
Summary: Takes place during the 7th year. With the prophecy weighing down on Harry, and feelings he can't get rid of, he knows Hermione is more then a friend to him. HH fic, well, Please RR, its my first fic, so dont be too harsh, constructive critism welcome
1. The First Day Back

_Disclaimer: I own nothing, it is all J.K.Rowling's :tear:_

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_Her hair, her face…he just couldn't take her eyes off of her. He knew he was staring, but he didn't care. He just loved the sight of her, as well as everything else about her._

"Harry!" Someone cried behind him. "Oi, Harry!" It was Ron, good old Ron. Coming out of his thoughts, he took his eyes off of his other best friend, Hermione.

"Ron!" He answered, laughing slightly, though he didn't quite know why. "How was your summer?"

As they both walked towards platform 9 and ¾, discussing the summer and slowly starting to change the subject into Quidditch, they both turned around as someone walked up behind them. Who else would it be? It was Hermione.

"Hello, Harry, Ron. Hope you had a good summer!" She said, sounding breathless. (She had to run to catch up with them.)

"H-Hermione!" Was the answer from both Harry and Ron. "Hi!"

Gathering his bearings first, Harry started to talk normally to her. "Pretty good, well, for the Dursleys anyway, but rather boring." Plastering a fake smile on his face, "How about your summer?"

With Voldemort on the rise, and with the whole Order telling him how dangerous anything he wanted to do was, he was basically confined to Privet Drive, and all he was able to do was grieve over Sirius and the prophecy that was coming closer to becoming fore filled.

As soon as Harry started answering, she regretted her question. She knew how he had spent his summer, alone in the Dursley home, with nothing to do except brood over Sirius's death. She had seen Ron, so she already knew how his summer had been. _Why do you have to be so stupid, Hermione? How do _you _think his summer went? He lost the only person who he really cared for, and no one has filled that spot. Not that they'd want to, but after a year without him, you would think that this withdrawal would be done with!_

_He only thinks he lost the only person he really cared for. _Hermione reminded herself, she couldn't help it. Harry was the Boy Who Lived, as well as one of her closest friends. It didn't really help that he was so unfairly cute!

"Oh, my summer was grand!"

As Hermione continued to tell them about her summer, they made their way onto the Hogwarts Express. Harry didn't hear a word of what she said, he was to busy noticing how much she had gone from his best friend, to the gorgeous creature that now graced his presence. He caught himself staring, and had to look away, much to his despair, but he could never make it that long.

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One the train, Harry was left, even if momentarily, to find a compartment for himself. Ron and Hermione had to go to the Prefect's cabin to check in and get the rounds schedule. Finding a cabin with Sean, Dean and Neville already inside, the swap of summer stories began.

When Ron and Hermione finally made their entrance, about ten minutes after the train began to move, room was made, and the idol talk about their seventh year began.

Other people came and went, but Harry hardly noticed, he said his hellos, but his eyes never left the window. He had finally found the perfect angle for him to catch Hermione's reflection. _God, she is perfect. It's not like you'll ever get her though, mate. She's Hermione, she's so perfect, and she's too good for you. You're her friend; she doesn't have feelings for you. You have to get over her!_ How he had tried to do so over the long summer. He didn't really know when he started having feelings for her, but he knew he did now, and he wasn't all too happy that he had to get over her so soon. But he still couldn't stop thinking about her, and stared at her the entire train ride when she was actually in the compartment.

_Poor thing, _Hermione rationalized,_ He really misses Sirius. He's been staring out that stupid window the whole time! _She wanted nothing more then to go over to him and comfort him, but she couldn't, he wouldn't appreciate it, and he would get angry again, just as he had when Sirius died. With a small sigh, and a quick glance at him, she went for her rounds.

As the conversation died down, something it rarely did, everyone else began to notice the strangeness of Harry's silence. But it seemed at that moment that he came back into the realm of the living, as soon as Hermione left the compartment, he began talking about the on coming Quidditch season; everyone was looking forward to that, Harry would get the Cup for Gryffindor once more as the best seeker the school had seen in a while.

As they began fantasizing about the look on the faces of every member of the Slytherin House when Harry came back against Malfoy, for another year and the look never got old.

As the train slowed to a halt, everyone went their separate ways off the train, only to meet again in the Great Hall moments later.

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Dumbledore made his customary beginning-of-a-new-year speech, only it had a darker overtone to it then in previous years. Everyone knew what caused this tone, Voldemort was coming back, rather strongly for that matter, and everyone, except a few Slytherins, feared for their lives and the lives of their loved ones. No on felt this as much as Harry did. He had yet to tell anyone about the prophecy, and it was starting weigh down on him.

With the end of the speech, and all of the first years getting aquatinted with their new house-mates, the food appeared. Half the table groaned as Hermione started going off with her S.P.E.W. rants, but she shortly stopped when people started ignoring her, and starting merry chats about food and summers and whatnot. The only person that was almost completely silent, no surprise though, was Harry. It was just a year ago when he had at least pretended to be okay after the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but that, the death of Sirius, and Voldemort coming after him; it was just too much to ask of him to pretend like everything was alright.

As the excitement of the night wore off, and sleep began to take over, the students made their way to their Houses, and went to bed, leaving what was left to be done until morning, and hoping to get classes they wanted, and not have to deal with those they didn't.

With a tired "Good night" the trio went their separate ways as sleep took them, and the real world gave in as slumber took over and dreams came.

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A/N: Whoo hoo! My first chapter of my first fanfic! YAY for me:Smiles: Anyway, I know the ending is kinda weird, but hey, give me a break, and it does have a purpose! YAY, intro to the second chapter is comeing! Let's see, today is Sunday, so I will try and have the second chapter up sometime within the week. Then I have spring break, so, for those that care, I should have more to post then! Ta ta for now!


	2. Showers and Realizations

_Disclaimer: I only own the plot…sigh_

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_Harry leaned against the wall, jet black hair messier than usual. Hermione was at the other end of the corridor, making her way up to him. As she gained ground, Harry seemed to just slide down the corridor, moving farther and farther away from her. People began filing out of classrooms, making him even more unreachable to her. _

_Something wasn't right; a tall, hooded figure crept silently towards Harry, faster than Hermione could go. About to call out to Harry, a flash of bright green light took over the corridor. Seemingly in slow motion, Harry fell, scar glowing, as he hit the ground._

Hermione woke with a start. Stifling a scream, she got her shower bag and made her way to the Prefect's bathroom. On her way there, she felt a tear run down her cheek. _Harry died. _She thought ominously. _ The Boy who Lived was killed. I don't care if it was only a nightmare, HE STILL DIED. _That wasn't the only reason she was crying though. Voldemort would always come between them. Always. _He could never love me. He could have any girl in the whole bloody school, why would he pick me?_

Reaching the bathroom, Hermione looked at herself in the mirror, and couldn't help but laugh. Her face was red and blotchy, just as she knew it would be. She was by no means one of those girls who could cry without so much as red eyes. _It was only a dream, Hermione, just a stupid dream. _ Deep in her heart, she knew it wasn't just a dream, but her fears coming up again. She chose to ignore this fact, and went into one of the many showers that lined a wall of the bathroom. Letting the warm water fall over her, relaxing her, she washed away the dream, and all the cares that went with it, even if just for a moment. Turning off the water, she toweled her hair and changed into a new pair of pajamas.

Once again examining herself in the mirror, she was relieved to see that her face was back to normal, with only a small rosy tint from the warmth of the shower. Washing her face, and then brushing her hair so it wouldn't be too horrible the next day, she headed back to the Gryffindor Tower to get a couple more hours of sleep in before the first day of classes.

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Reaching to portrait of the Fat Lady, she murmured the password, and almost screamed when she saw a figure staring blankly into the fire.

"H-H-Harry?" She said softly. The figure looked up and smiled. Of course it was Harry, who else would it be anyway? Suddenly no longer tired, she took a seat in an armchair next to him.

"What are you doing up, Hermione?" He asked. _Wow. _He thought to himself. _ She really changed over the summer. God, she looks great! _ He couldn't help notice that her pajamas were flattering to her figure, the shortest shorts he had ever seen her wear, and a tight fitting tank top. He took in every inch of her.

"I was about to ask you the same thing." She replied. Looking him over, she was happy to see that he was dressed in pajama bottoms, dark blue, without a shirt on. _I knew he was strong and muscled, but I never thought he looked like this! _He had a six-pack, and, of course, had extremely muscled arms that were heavily accented by the flicker of the fire.

"Couldn't sleep."

"Shower for me."

They stayed up, idly talking for a good two hours before people began to immerge from their rooms. Sorry to have to stop talking, they went to their rooms to change into their robes and head to breakfast.

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As Hermione made her way to the Great Hall, she regretfully ran into a certain platinum blonde Slytherin.

"Watch where you're going, you filthy mudblood!" Draco Malfoy spat.

"Maybe if you weren't so intent on standing in the middle of the doorway, people wouldn't run into you." She replied, equally spiteful. With that, she purposefully knocked into him as she walked into the Hall, and muttered "Ferret Boy" under her breath, but still loud enough for him to hear. Quite pleased with herself, she found her usually seat between Harry and Ron.

As food appeared, and plates were piled with food, a slightly disturbing thought came to her, _Wow, Draco, no no no, Malfoy, looks pretty good this year. NO! I did not just think about Malfoy like that! Ew!_ Pushing the thought out of her mind, she piled her own plate, and waited for her course sheet to come.

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Across the Hall, Malfoy was simply fuming. _That filthy mudblood. What the hell makes her think she can talk to _me_ like that? I don't care if she is fucking hot. No. Granger is not hot. Yes she is, and you know it. But it's Granger! Yes, and she did change a lot over the summer… No, it's still Granger, she's still a mudblood, and still that stupid little git in the "dream team" over there._

As if that weren't enough for him, Blaise leaned over and said, "Damn, Draco, Granger's hot this year!"

"You sick bastard! It's Granger!" He wasn't about to admit, even to himself, that he had just been thinking the same thing

"I know." He said, then, with a sheepish grin added, "She's still hot." Malfoy just looked at him like he was a lunatic.

Soon after, the schedules came, which was fine by Malfoy, he got his sheet and went to his common room, anything to get away from anything that had to do with Granger.

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As the course sheets came to the Gryffindor table, Hermione let out a shriek of joy, she got all the N.E.W.T. classes she wanted: Charms, Transfiguration, Muggle Studies, Ancient Ruins, Defense Against the Dark Arts and Arithmancy. Comparing schedules with Harry and Ron, all three had Transfiguration and D.A.D.A.

Harry looked happily at his schedule; he had somehow managed to get into N.E.W.T.s potions! He had all the classes he would need to be an Auror: Charms, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Darks Arts, and Potions. _Yes, three classes with Hermione!_

Ron was the only one who wasn't happy with his classes; he had somehow gotten into another year of Divination.

As the three finished breakfast, they all ran back to their rooms to collect their things.

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A/N: Okay, I know that was kinda strange but whatever. Thank you Grims and Wonderfall! My first reviewers! I love you guys! It's my Spring Break, so I should be able to again post sometime this week at least once! Luv you all! NOW PLEASE REVIEW!


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